Happy Pride everyone! This is a duet I wrote for the Victoria Conservatory of Music (‪@victoriaconservatory‬)'s BIg IDEA project.
0:00 Introduction
2:32 Blossom
About the big IDEA project:
“[The project is a] series of three events including performances and conversation in creating a more inclusive and equitable music space. These uplifting and informative, faculty forward events focus on the principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) through the lens of the vibrant 2SLGBTQIA+ community. These events are offered through support from the City of Victoria.”
About the Piece:
Blossom was composed for the Victoria Conservatory of Music’s “Big IDEA” project. A huge thank you to Marsha Elliott-Edwards for giving me this opportunity. While searching for inspiration for this duet, I immediately thought of a poem I had read titled “Risk” by Elizabeth Appell a few months prior, which had struck me as a profound expression of what it felt like to come out.
After much consideration, I chose the name Blossom instead of the poem’s title, Risk, as I wanted to focus on the pride and celebration that the project is all about. Unfortunately, anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate is on the rise, with over 500 bills in the US targeting queer folks being introduced in the past two years. Living life out and proud can still be a profound risk to countless queer people.
As soon as I read the first line of the poem, I knew I had to turn it into a melody. In my musical studies this year, Marsha and I had talked about melodies with pickup notes being interpreted as a sentence that begins with “and then…”, and so I knew that this melody would start with a pickup resolving into the downbeat.
Musically, I was inspired by a piece that went viral on Instagram recently, Caleb Arredondo (‪@calebarredondo5204‬)’s Echo Sax End. Other sources of inspiration for my writing that come to mind are Luminous Sky for Saxophone Trio by Chris Evan Hass (‪@cehass11‬) “on queer survival” for Alto Saxophone and Piano by Stuart Beatch(‪@stuartbeatch‬), and the title theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Blossom tells a story about a child growing up and realizing that there is something different about them. As the piece unfurls, the child initially tries to distract themselves, hoping that this feeling would go away. When this doesn’t work, the dissonant journey to acceptance - both from others and oneself - begins. Then, one fateful day comes and reveals itself in the melody set to the poem (I have included the text in the score when that happens), and the rest is history. The piece ends with the simple resolution that appears at the start of the poem setting.
#pride #originalmusic #duet